Saturday, December 29, 2012
Welcome Julie!
I finally has taken the time to update on the news of the la Cour Marker Rasmussen familiy (thank you Rachel ;-)). And indeed, news we have:
On the 24th of November Julie entered our lives, and we all smelted on the spot when we first met her. The preganancy had been difficult, with lots of scans and tests done, because something seemed odd: small bleedings, extreme tiredness, scans showing an anormal placenta and - for some weeks - too much fluid. Bot nothing too odd - normalcy lies within a broad spectrum, I was told. We had decided for a planned c-section, as we did with Marie-Louise five years ago. We (and the doctors) did not want to test those (absent) labours again, as we had witnessed when giving birth to Sebastian and the little girl (in week 21) in 2006. So a date was set, on the 10th of December our new baby was to be born.
As the pregnancy progressed I found this date more and more distant, and feeling overdue I started to think that it would not be possible to get there. I therefore started to pack a bag early (and had it all sorted out on the 23rd of November!). The baby was very active, and all tests made us believe that she was doing fine. As we had tested for fanconi anemia already in week 11 (with a negative result), we felt confident that the bumps in the pregnancy were related to my age (41) rather than problems with the baby.
During the very early hours of the 24th of November, the water broke. This was a little month before due date, and I was happy to have the bag ready to go to the hospital. However, the midwifes were not at all convinced that the water had broken. They could not feel any water while examining me, and my suggestion to double check with a scan was put aside - I was just probably a little incontinent they thought! Well, the labours had not really started, and I could not convince anyone about the broken water, so we were sent home again. At home I felt more water coming and after a couple of hours we were back on the road again, this time with some occasisonal contractions. It took another couple of hours to get the hospital to understand that if we were to head for the c-section, it had to be organised here and now. And finally, after 9 hours of arguments, I was finally under the knife.
To make a long story short, it turned out that our baby-girl had her face in the wrong direction (a scan could have been helpfull here, but with the progressing contractions, time had become an issue) and the surgeon had to turn the baby around before he could get her out. A manoeuvre which felt like somebody was ripping my body apart, and everything turned a little hectic from there. At one point the surgeon looks at me over the cloth, trying to calm me down, his glasses and the big lamp behind him smeared with blood. Hmmm...finally the baby is out. But oh, oh so quiet. Tue is NOT invited to the doctors table, where they are examinig her (like he was with Marie-Louise), and only after a another long wait, we hear her crying.
Shortly thereafter we were told that she is pale, cold and a bit small, and needs a check up at the NICU. Tue leaves with her, and both of us has some serious and not so nice flashbacks to the birth of Sebastian. After a couple of hours Tue gets back to me at the recovery ward, telling me the good news that our little Julie is feeling better and warmer. She is a tiny baby, weighing only 2319 g (which is breathtakingly close to Sebastians 2320 g at birth!) and meassuring 48 cm. She is very slim, which the very poorly looking placenta seems to play a part in. After some testing in the hours to come, the doctors finds a VSD, one of the most common heart faillures found on newborn babies. However, very often, the hole between the right and the left chamber of the heart, closes by itself. We will see about this in the weeks to come. Overall, she is doing fine, and started to breastfeed within the first day of her life.
With Julie dismissed from the NICU, I started to recover from the hectic c-section. On the second night, an observant nurse finds big warm and red areas on my stomach, and I was started on IV antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Although I was given two different meds with 8 hours interval, the infection is still not under control after a couple of days, and it is decided that I will have to stay in the hospital. After 7 days I was finally ready to go home. However, Julie now had developed jaundice, and we had to stay yet another day for light treatment for her. Need I say, that at this point both Julie and I, but also Tue, Sebastian and Marie-Louise were fairly fed up with hospital, and with not being able to go home with our new family member. We finally got home, but with yet another round of antibiotics for me (and Julie because of the breastfeeding), a lung-infection which had to be treated with antibiotics for Marie-Louise, the celebration of Marie-Louises 5 years anniversary on the 12th of December and both Marie-Louise and Sebastian going down with the flu from the 20th - 28th of December. As you can understand, it is only now that we are starting to feel a little close to normal again ;-)
Apart from this long, and way too long description of how Julie entered this world, I must tell you that she is love at first sight! Cute and calm so far, and a therapy in herself to cuddle. Both Sebastian and Marie-Louise are very sweet to her, and love to hold her. I have already a pair of very good helpers, especially when it comes to pushing the pram, but also - very surprisingly - when it comes to changing diapers. We have not witnessed any jealousy so far, but of course it will take some time for all members of the family to adjust to the new family dynamic. We will see.
We had a very nice Christmas (apart from the flu) with my parents and my sisters family, and had a visit from Tues brother and his family on the next day. Apart from this we have recovered from all the illness, and look forward to welcoming 2013, which will hopefully treat us well. We have a lot be thankful for, and are very relieved that Julie has now arrived in our family.
Happy New Year to you all!
On the 24th of November Julie entered our lives, and we all smelted on the spot when we first met her. The preganancy had been difficult, with lots of scans and tests done, because something seemed odd: small bleedings, extreme tiredness, scans showing an anormal placenta and - for some weeks - too much fluid. Bot nothing too odd - normalcy lies within a broad spectrum, I was told. We had decided for a planned c-section, as we did with Marie-Louise five years ago. We (and the doctors) did not want to test those (absent) labours again, as we had witnessed when giving birth to Sebastian and the little girl (in week 21) in 2006. So a date was set, on the 10th of December our new baby was to be born.
As the pregnancy progressed I found this date more and more distant, and feeling overdue I started to think that it would not be possible to get there. I therefore started to pack a bag early (and had it all sorted out on the 23rd of November!). The baby was very active, and all tests made us believe that she was doing fine. As we had tested for fanconi anemia already in week 11 (with a negative result), we felt confident that the bumps in the pregnancy were related to my age (41) rather than problems with the baby.
During the very early hours of the 24th of November, the water broke. This was a little month before due date, and I was happy to have the bag ready to go to the hospital. However, the midwifes were not at all convinced that the water had broken. They could not feel any water while examining me, and my suggestion to double check with a scan was put aside - I was just probably a little incontinent they thought! Well, the labours had not really started, and I could not convince anyone about the broken water, so we were sent home again. At home I felt more water coming and after a couple of hours we were back on the road again, this time with some occasisonal contractions. It took another couple of hours to get the hospital to understand that if we were to head for the c-section, it had to be organised here and now. And finally, after 9 hours of arguments, I was finally under the knife.
To make a long story short, it turned out that our baby-girl had her face in the wrong direction (a scan could have been helpfull here, but with the progressing contractions, time had become an issue) and the surgeon had to turn the baby around before he could get her out. A manoeuvre which felt like somebody was ripping my body apart, and everything turned a little hectic from there. At one point the surgeon looks at me over the cloth, trying to calm me down, his glasses and the big lamp behind him smeared with blood. Hmmm...finally the baby is out. But oh, oh so quiet. Tue is NOT invited to the doctors table, where they are examinig her (like he was with Marie-Louise), and only after a another long wait, we hear her crying.
Shortly thereafter we were told that she is pale, cold and a bit small, and needs a check up at the NICU. Tue leaves with her, and both of us has some serious and not so nice flashbacks to the birth of Sebastian. After a couple of hours Tue gets back to me at the recovery ward, telling me the good news that our little Julie is feeling better and warmer. She is a tiny baby, weighing only 2319 g (which is breathtakingly close to Sebastians 2320 g at birth!) and meassuring 48 cm. She is very slim, which the very poorly looking placenta seems to play a part in. After some testing in the hours to come, the doctors finds a VSD, one of the most common heart faillures found on newborn babies. However, very often, the hole between the right and the left chamber of the heart, closes by itself. We will see about this in the weeks to come. Overall, she is doing fine, and started to breastfeed within the first day of her life.
With Julie dismissed from the NICU, I started to recover from the hectic c-section. On the second night, an observant nurse finds big warm and red areas on my stomach, and I was started on IV antibiotics to get rid of the infection. Although I was given two different meds with 8 hours interval, the infection is still not under control after a couple of days, and it is decided that I will have to stay in the hospital. After 7 days I was finally ready to go home. However, Julie now had developed jaundice, and we had to stay yet another day for light treatment for her. Need I say, that at this point both Julie and I, but also Tue, Sebastian and Marie-Louise were fairly fed up with hospital, and with not being able to go home with our new family member. We finally got home, but with yet another round of antibiotics for me (and Julie because of the breastfeeding), a lung-infection which had to be treated with antibiotics for Marie-Louise, the celebration of Marie-Louises 5 years anniversary on the 12th of December and both Marie-Louise and Sebastian going down with the flu from the 20th - 28th of December. As you can understand, it is only now that we are starting to feel a little close to normal again ;-)
Apart from this long, and way too long description of how Julie entered this world, I must tell you that she is love at first sight! Cute and calm so far, and a therapy in herself to cuddle. Both Sebastian and Marie-Louise are very sweet to her, and love to hold her. I have already a pair of very good helpers, especially when it comes to pushing the pram, but also - very surprisingly - when it comes to changing diapers. We have not witnessed any jealousy so far, but of course it will take some time for all members of the family to adjust to the new family dynamic. We will see.
We had a very nice Christmas (apart from the flu) with my parents and my sisters family, and had a visit from Tues brother and his family on the next day. Apart from this we have recovered from all the illness, and look forward to welcoming 2013, which will hopefully treat us well. We have a lot be thankful for, and are very relieved that Julie has now arrived in our family.
Happy New Year to you all!
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